Synopsis
The moving and inspiring story of a young Creole/Black woman born in 1936 in New Orleans. Stung by the ugly hatred of racism, young Iris Duplantier Rideau learned from her grandmother to pass for white, affording her better opportunities than her darker-skinned friends and family. Moving to California with her mother, Iris experienced horrors that no child should endure, leaving her a single teenage mother without a future at 17. What would have stopped most people, only made Iris more determined. She took a grueling job in a sweatshop to support herself and her baby. Needing more education to get a better job, Iris took night classes. However, once her school counselors discovered she was Black, doors began to shut. Iris pounded the pavement and landed a front-office job with an insurance company that didn’t care about her race—only that she could answer phones and type fast. Iris’s determination and never-give-up spirit led her to start her own insurance company, eventually providing insurance to Black-owned businesses and non-profit agencies that “white” insurance agencies wouldn’t touch. Iris’s talent then led her to open a second business managing the city of Los Angeles’ supplemental pension fund—the first Black woman to do this! When Iris retired, she moved to the Santa Ynez Valley and created the award-winning Rideau Winery, earning her the title of the first Black woman in the country to own a winery. Iris’ Creole heritage brought people from all races and backgrounds together. Photos and recipes included.
About the Author
Iris Duplantier Rideau was born in the Crescent City section of New Orleans in 1936. She learned how to "pass for white" from her light-skinned grandmother. To escape the blatant racism of the South, Rideau convinced her mother to move to Los Angeles when Rideau was 12-years-old. Forced to drop out of school when she became pregnant at 15, Rideau enrolled in night classes, determined not to spend her life working in dead-end jobs available to women of color. On her own, she landed a front-office job at an insurance agency. In 1967, Rideau founded her own insurance business, becoming the first minority/woman-owned firm to specialize in federally funded programs. She assisted LA's Mayor Tom Bradley in developing the city's first Affirmative Action Program. In the 1970s, she founded Rideau Securities and Investment Firm that specialized in pension planning for municipalities, ultimately leading to her illustrious career as California's state director for a national pensionplanning company. She was awarded the city's Deferred Compensation Plan contract, resulting in $500 million under management by the time Rideau retired in 1999. Rideau left Los Angeles to build her dream home in the Santa Ynez Valley. Nearby, she discovered an abandoned Santa Barbara Historic Monument adobe house built in 1884 sitting on 22 acres of property. Combining her love of entertaining with her business savvy-(though nothing in the winery world!)-Rideau boldly purchased the property and restored the old house. She planted the vineyards to imported Rhone vines from the south of France, built the winery, and created the award-winning Rideau Winery, one of California's top wineries in the SantaYnez Valley. Rideau has always given back to her communities, first Los Angeles, then the Santa Ynez Valley. As a woman-owned winery, she hired female winemakers, assistant winemakers, and tasting room staff-something unheard of then. During her lifetime, Iris Rideau has proved thather belief in a higher power and her confidence in herself have guided her successful life's journey-shattering those glass ceilings one by one.
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